Windows 7 almost five times more secure than XP

Windows 7 is four to five times less vulnerable to malware infections than is Windows XP.

Those are the findings of Microsoft's latest Security Intelligence Report (PDF), which detailed in depth the state of software vulnerabilities, exploits, security breaches, and malware in 2010.

Overall, the study found that infection rates for newer Microsoft operating systems with the latest service packs are consistently lower than those for older OSes, giving Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 the highest marks for security.

Looking at the number of reported infections per 1,000 computers, Microsoft found that Windows 7 64-bit had the lowest number at 2.5, while the 32-bit version had 3.8.

Windows XP with SP3 came in with 15.9 infections per 1,000, while XP with SP2 had the highest number at 19.3. Breaking down the numbers, Microsoft's stats mean that Windows 7 is around four to five times more secure than XP.

Windows Vista's infection rate was considerably lower than that for XP but still turned out to be double that for Windows 7.

I agree with Charlie, XP has been around for so long, of course it's vulnerabilities are more well known, although I am sure that they have closed a lot of backdoors. For example, I haven't seen anything like Vundo on a 7 computer yet.

There's no doubt about it. In 2000, Windows 98 SE and Millenium Edition were the most secure. But you get to 2002 and everyone claims XP is most secure. Really all that is happening is the old bugs, old viruses, and old hacks are fixed up and patched more efficiently than before, therefore making the new OS the most secure. Once the operating system is out longer, it can be picked at longer and the bugs are found which makes it easier to code viruses for. It's same with Facebook, MySpace, Blogspot, and any given application like Windows Live Messenger. If the updates aren't given for these apps, it gives the people wanting to write viruses for them an easier time to do so, thus making the virus count go up and the security to go down.